PADI vs NAUI

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coolhandcarter

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Messages
23
Reaction score
3
Location
Oahu, HAwaii
# of dives
500 - 999
Now I know I am about to open a mess here but I have been a PADI MSDT for a couple of years. I have a buddy that opened a NAUI Dive Center and is asking me to do the crossover and teach for him. I teach for PADI because thats the agency I did my open water thru and it was the major agency when I was looking to teach. Now I am looking for a un-bias opinion of pros and cons for both. I know PADI and my friend knows NAUI but I don't know if he is churching it up to get me to crossover and then be committed to 2 different membership renewals every year.
 
PADI-
Plus
better known worldwide
Negative
VERY rigid teaching structure, so no real room for much variation

NAUI
Plus
Allows you to do pretty much whatever you want when you teach, there is no required structure to their courses, only that you meet or exceed their minimum requirements
Negative
Smaller organization less worldwide recognition *hasn't been around as long and what not
Not a huge negative as an individual instructor, but from a dive shop perspective it is harder to establish tourist types because they may never have heard of NAUI
 
Yea thats pretty much what our conversations have been like. I am just not convinced that NAUI is as marketable as PADI. Between the cross over and the yearly dues and the course materials I would start out negative again. Also I have been in shops where people walk in off the street asking if we could give them their PADI card not knowing that there were other agencies that offer Open Water type certifications.
 
Outside of the diving world, neither are very well known. Inside the diving world they are equally well recognized. With either of those or a bunch of others, there's no problem with recognition, your students will be able to dive.

As for NAUI not having been around as long - sorry, but you are mistaken. NAUI is about 5 or 6 years older than PADI.

The biggest difference between the two is philosophy. PADI's requirements are more rigid. What I mean by that is while both agencies give you minimum standards, PADI's requirements are more specific as to when what must be taught. Skill A must be taught in Pool session 1, Skill B must be taught in pool session 2, it cannot be (without violating standards) taught in pool session 1. You are allowed to move them around within the required pool session. NAUI allows their instructors to teach their requirements whenever the instructor thinks best. NAUI also allows instructors to add requirements. PADI does not. PADI does allow instructors to teach skills PADI doesn't require, but the instructor cannot require them. What exactly is required differs from one agency to another.

Are you happy with PADI? If you are, stay with them. If you aren't, crossover to NAUI or another agency if you think they'll be a better fit for you. If you're simply curious, watch other instructors teach. You can probably learn tricks that will help you be a better teacher even if you decide against crossing over.

Unless there are special circumstances, few instructors really benefit from being cross certified.
 
NAUI's actually the older of the two organizations ... I believe at least one of the originators of PADI (Erickson?) was formerly a NAUI instructor.

Beyond the structural differences, there is also a difference in how the two organizations present their material. For the most part, it's the same material ... but whereas PADI tends to focus on the mechanics of diving, NAUI tends to focus on the physics of diving ... in effect, "how" vs "why". It's sometimes a subtle difference, but it can have an impact on teaching style, depending on how you're used to presenting the material in a class.

I've known a few instructors who've crossed over ... in both directions, actually. There doesn't seem to be any particular difficulties making the transition. It really boils down more to business opportunities than anything ...

... Bob (Grateful Diver)
 
Smaller organization less worldwide recognition *hasn't been around as long and what not
Not a huge negative as an individual instructor, but from a dive shop perspective it is harder to establish tourist types because they may never have heard of NAUI


Ummmm NAUI is older than PADI.


To the OP if you want to teach then I would recommend a crossover. If working for a shop then they should pay for your Insurance which covers the Instructor not the agency. So what you have 2 agency dues that is what $150 more a year well now you can teach through both agencies therfor more certifications. Maybe the shop will cover the dues as well.:idk:
 
woops, either way, the course structure is what matters, as well as the marketability. PADI seems to have a bigger name and I see a LOT more PADI shops than NAUI shops...
I could never teach PADI, but some can and prefer it. From a shop perspective I'd rather cert through PADI, but with the university setting, you can't teach PADI. It's just not possible to teach a PADI course over a whole semester and you can't produce the caliber divers that you can with NAUI
Not saying PADI divers suck, but if I certify a student with NAUI with 4 hours in the pool a week for 12 weeks, they usually come out pretty good. I couldn't teach that same PADI course with out being shot, and I can't do OWT's every other week to get through the material I need/want to cover
 
At the OW level I'd also give PADI a + for their materials over NAUI (note, I am NOT a NAUI instructor but this comes from my understanding of the PADI materials and discussions with at least one NAUI instructor, NOT NWGD) -- especially the OW eLearning which I think is really pretty good.

I wish I had more flexibility in having students do skill Y as a PADI instructor, but I haven't found that to be a real problem -- YET.

For what it's worth, I've also been thinking of crossing over and have had several offers from local CDs. In fact, a benefit for me is that I'd actually HAVE local CDs with whom I could discuss teaching issues (actually I do discuss teaching issues with them instead of with PADI people).
 
Sax wrote
It's just not possible to teach a PADI course over a whole semester and you can't produce the caliber divers that you can with NAUI

???

Why do you say that? I took a whole semester course many, many years ago (before PADI existed?) and there was nothing in it that couldn't be done within PADI guidelines. In fact, I'm doing a school course now, PADI, (not a semester but I wish it was!) that includes OW, Drysuit and EAN -- and if I had more time, I could easily add the AOW. Why can't you do that?
 
I was under the impression you weren't able to go past the current course materials. I.e. you can't teach AOW until they already have OW type stuff. For the courses we teach, it's not possible to produce the divers we do because of the drills and skills we require them to do.
MFS full ditch and don, skin diving circuit, bunch of buoyancy drills that we REQUIRE in order for them to get to OWT. We teach full face masks, underwater surveying, lift bags etc in our scuba 2 class and couldn't get away with all of our requirements with PADI. Not a problem for 99% of the scuba world, but in our closed off little pool it's tough. NAUI lets us do whatever we want whenever we want to do it
I agree with you on PADI materials being better, the ones from NAUI are junk...

Like I said, if I were a dive shop, I'd do PADI in a heartbeat. Liability concerns is one, it's damn near impossible to sue PADI or it's instructors if you follow their curriculum outlines, so it's safer, easier to teach faster due to the course materials, and if you have joe schmoe walking in off the street he MAY have heard of PADI, but he probably has never heard of NAUI before, or SDI/TDI etc.
There's nothing wrong with the way PADI teaches, it's good, but it's not for me and the program I work with.
 

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